DigitalHealth.London Spotlight: Incision

Every week, we shine a spotlight on one of our DigitalHealth.London companies, founders or NHS fellows. Today, we are excited to feature our current DigitalHealth.London Accelerator company Incision.

What is the problem you are trying to solve and why is it important?

Surgical teams are currently facing unprecedented challenges, including staff shortages, long waiting lists, and record levels of turnover and burnout.

Meanwhile, surgical care is changing rapidly to meet demands for efficiency and cost-effectiveness, placing additional pressure on systems and teams. Patient complexity and the rate of technological change are increasing. These pressures make it harder for theatre staff and their teams to consistently deliver high-quality care.

Targeted digital solutions provide a high-impact way to support teams and reduce the burden on staff, enabling them to work confidently and safely while providing hospitals with the digital infrastructure to save time, drive improvement and adapt to the challenges ahead.

What is the solution you have developed and how can it help with the problem?

Incision Assist is a digital platform built specifically for operating theatre teams. Using app-based technology, Assist enables teams to capture their critical workflows and essential perioperative information, providing teams with a central point of reference for exactly how each surgeon performs each procedure at their hospital.

Assist combines case-specific information on materials and setups with a full perioperative breakdown of each procedure, from patient preparation to surgical steps and postoperative instructions.

Hospital-specific information is combined with educational content from Incision, like refreshers on how to use common surgical devices. This seamlessly fits into orientation programmes and provides staff with a bespoke, intuitive, technologically optimised tool to prepare for their daily work.

What is the history of your company?

Founded in Amsterdam in 2014, Incision began by creating video-based learning courses for surgeons to supplement their training and improve their skills. This soon grew to developing material for the wider perioperative team, focused on providing staff with the best possible preparation for the operating theatre.

Incision has grown into an internationally recognised leader in digital innovation for surgical teams, working directly with hospitals and organisations to optimise their workflows, grow performance and improve clinical outcomes.

What successes have you had so far from successful pilots/trials/contracts?

At the time of writing, our published claims, such as 15% reduction in turnaround time between cases and 17% faster onboarding of new starts, are from research conducted with some of our Dutch customers.

In early 2025, we will be publishing our first impact data from an NHS Trust. Initial analysis suggests the impact will be greater than the aforementioned 15% reduction in turnaround time. Additional benefits are also suggested, such as the rationalisation and standardisation of surgical equipment across departments, making immediate impacts on spend and cost improvement programmes.

What are your future goals? What does success look like?

Our ambitious goal is to improve surgical care at 10,000 clinics by 2030. We aim to achieve this through a combination of our Assist app, comprehensive Courses & Programmes and a dedicated Customer Success approach. By supporting surgical teams to prepare for their work in the operating room, we can enable them to work confidently, safely and efficiently. Additionally, we empower teams to continuously improve their workflows and adopt best practices.

Hospitals working with us benefit from enhanced efficiency (including increased revenues, reduced delays, waste and onboarding costs), improved team wellness (boosted confidence and retention) and superior clinical outcomes through the sharing of best practices.

Success for us means transforming how surgical care is delivered globally, creating better experiences for both patients and healthcare professionals.

How has your time on the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator helped you in achieving these?

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator has introduced us to various potential customers and stakeholders across Greater London that we may not have been able to reach, or have got us into those conversations faster. It has also allowed us to connect with companies facing similar challenges, learn from and help each other and not face these challenges alone!

Do you have any advice for aspiring digital health companies?

There is a huge need and want for healthcare to develop its digital capability and capacity with room for improvement available in all departments and functions. Healthcare remains a complex, time consuming industry to infiltrate with increasing challenges as the industry navigates the introduction of digital solutions. However, if your solution meets a need, whether it is known or not, and you have the perseverance to infiltrate healthcare, then there’s never been a better time.

Any asks for the audience?

If your organisation is facing challenges in theatre productivity, utilisation, staff turnover and achieving Net Zero, our simple, workforce focused solution can have an immediate impact that will align, upskill and empower the full surgical team. We can be live within 12 weeks, integrate with EHRs and are ready to have a wider impact across healthcare. Please get in touch with Neil Holland to learn more.

Incision is currently in Cohort 8 of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme.

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme is funded by the UK Government via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). It is delivered by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London in partnership with the Office of Life Sciences, CW+, Medicity, NHS England, the Mayor of London and the Levelling Up Fund.

For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-
shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus.